Open-Ocean Fish Farm Proposed Off San Diego Coast
September 21st, 2020Via: LA Times:
The proposed Pacific Ocean AquaFarm would be about four miles offshore of San Diego and would generate 5,000 metric tons of sushi-grade yellowfish each year — enough for 11 million servings of the popular seafood.
A partnership between Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute and Pacific6 Enterprise, the project also would create a diversity of economic opportunities and provide a local source for a fish that is now mostly imported.
The institute submitted a federal permit application for the project Sept. 9. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will lead the environmental review of their proposal, which will take about 18 to 24 months. Construction would take about a year, and the first set of fish stocked there would be ready for market 18 to 22 months after that, Kent said.
“We’re talking about five years before people are enjoying farmed yellowtail off the coast of California,” said Don Kent, president of Hubbs-SeaWorld.
Group of ‘Armed Citizens’ Confronts Health Workers Conducting Random COVID-19 Testing
September 21st, 2020Via: Pioneer Press:
A team of state and federal health workers were recently confronted by armed residents while they were conducting random coronavirus testing in communities across Minnesota.
“The incident was unfortunate,” said Julie Bartkey, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Health. “The team did the right thing by leaving and notifying their study site coordinator of the situation.”
State officials confirmed the encounter, but have not disclosed when or where the incident occurred.
Prosecutor in the U.S. Virgin Islands Seeking Epstein Flight Logs Spanning Decades
September 21st, 2020Via: New York Post:
The top prosecutor in the US Virgin Islands is seeking more than 20 years of flight logs from Jeffrey Epstein’s fleet — a move that’s stirred up “panic among many of the rich and famous,” according to a new report.
Attorney General Denise George has sued the late pedophile’s estate, subpoenaing logs for each of his four helicopters and three planes from 1998 until his suicide last year at a Manhattan federal jail, the Mirror reported.
She additionally is seeking “complaints or reports of potentially suspicious conduct” and any personal notes written by the pilots, and names and contact information for all those who “interacted with or observed” Epstein or any passengers connected to him, according to the outlet.
Coca-Cola Paid Scientists to Downplay How Sugary Beverages Fueled the Obesity Crisis
September 20th, 2020Objective:
We evaluate the extent to which Coca-Cola tried to influence research in the Global Energy Balance Network, as revealed by correspondence between the company and leading public health academics obtained through Freedom-of-Information (FOI) requests.
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Conclusions:
Coca-Cola sought to obscure its relationship with researchers, minimise the public perception of its role and use these researchers to promote industry-friendly messaging. More robust approaches for managing conflicts of interest are needed to address diffuse and obscured patterns of industry influence.
Via: Daily Mail:
Coca-Cola’s work with scientists to downplay the role sugar plays in contributing to obesity has been called a ‘low point in this history of public health.’
The beverage company donated millions of dollars to a team of researchers at a non-profit claiming to look into causes of excess weight gain in the US.
However, the team ended up being a ‘front group’ for Coca-Cola and promoted the idea that it was a lack of exercise, not a bad diet, that was the primary driver of the US obesity epidemic.
What’s more, the group tried to downplay the fact that Coca-Cola was a donor of its research, and how much money the company gifted.
Global Banks Defy U.S. Crackdowns by Serving Oligarchs, Criminals and Terrorists
September 20th, 2020Via: The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists:
Secret U.S. government documents reveal that JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and other big banks have defied money laundering crackdowns by moving staggering sums of illicit cash for shadowy characters and criminal networks that have spread chaos and undermined democracy around the world.
The records show that five global banks — JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon — kept profiting from powerful and dangerous players even after U.S. authorities fined these financial institutions for earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money.
U.S. agencies responsible for enforcing money laundering laws rarely prosecute megabanks that break the law, and the actions authorities do take barely ripple the flood of plundered money that washes through the international financial system.
In some cases the banks kept moving illicit funds even after U.S. officials warned them they’d face criminal prosecutions if they didn’t stop doing business with mobsters, fraudsters or corrupt regimes.
Actual Headline: “Conspiracy Theorists Clash with Police at Anti-Lockdown Demonstration”
September 19th, 2020The conspiracy theorists are here! Run for your lives!
Via: Independent:
Hundreds of conspiracy theorists have gathered in central London to protest against coronavirus restrictions in the UK as infections worsen.
COVID-19: “The Higher Your Vitamin D Status, Lower Was Your Risk”
September 19th, 2020Via: Boston Herald:
Stop waiting for a miracle drug: A Boston University doctor says a sufficient amount of vitamin D can cut the risk of catching coronavirus by 54%.
“People have been looking for the magic drug or waiting for the vaccine and not looking for something this simple,” said Dr. Michael Holick, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine.
Holick and his colleagues studied blood samples from Quest Diagnostics of more than 190,000 Americans from all 50 states and found that those who had deficient levels of vitamin D had 54% higher COVID positivity compared to those with adequate levels of vitamin D in the blood.
The risk of getting coronavirus continued to decline as vitamin D levels increased, the study, published in the Public Library of Science One peer-reviewed journal shows.
“The higher your vitamin D status, lower was your risk,” Holick said.
Related: Vitamin D Nearly Abolishes ICU Risk in COVID-19
U.S. Sends Mechanized Troops Back Into Syria
September 19th, 2020Via: Air Force Times:
Bradley fighting vehicles have headed back into eastern Syria, the Pentagon announced Friday, a move that comes after a tense encounter with Russian forces left four U.S. troops lightly injured last month.
The return of mechanized units also comes as the U.S. military deployed Sentinel radar and increased the frequency of fighter jet patrols over U.S. forces in that part of Syria, according to U.S. Central Command spokesman Navy Capt. Bill Urban.
“These actions are a clear demonstration of U.S. resolve to defend Coalition forces in the [Eastern Syria Security Area], and to ensure that they are able to continue their Defeat-ISIS mission without interference,” Urban said in an emailed statement. “The Defense Department has previously deployed Bradleys to northeast Syria pursuant to these goals.”
Bradleys from the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team were last sent to Syria in late October 2019 to guard oil infrastructure from Islamic State militants, officials said at the time.
The Uterus Collector
September 19th, 2020Via: AP:
Sitting across from her lawyer at an immigration detention center in rural Georgia, Mileidy Cardentey Fernandez unbuttoned her jail jumpsuit to show the scars on her abdomen. There were three small, circular marks.
The 39-year-old woman from Cuba was told only that she would undergo an operation to treat her ovarian cysts, but a month later, she’s still not sure what procedure she got. After Cardentey repeatedly requested her medical records to find out, Irwin County Detention Center gave her more than 100 pages showing a diagnosis of cysts but nothing from the day of the surgery.
“The only thing they told me was: ‘You’re going to go to sleep and when you wake up, we will have finished,'” Cardentey said this week in a phone interview.
Cardentey kept her hospital bracelet. It has the date, Aug. 14, and part of the doctor’s name, Dr. Mahendra Amin, a gynecologist linked this week to allegations of unwanted hysterectomies and other procedures done on detained immigrant women that jeopardize their ability to have children.
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Dawn Wooten alleged that many detained women were taken to an unnamed gynecologist whom she labeled the “uterus collector” because of how many hysterectomies he performed.
Engineers Produce a Fisheye Lens That’s Completely Flat
September 19th, 2020Via: MIT News:
To capture panoramic views in a single shot, photographers typically use fisheye lenses — ultra-wide-angle lenses made from multiple pieces of curved glass, which distort incoming light to produce wide, bubble-like images. Their spherical, multipiece design makes fisheye lenses inherently bulky and often costly to produce.
Now engineers at MIT and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell have designed a wide-angle lens that is completely flat. It is the first flat fisheye lens to produce crisp, 180-degree panoramic images. The design is a type of “metalens,” a wafer-thin material patterned with microscopic features that work together to manipulate light in a specific way.
